Iraqi death squads underway

Apparently there wasn't enough resistance to the idea. Or maybe our dear congresslugs don't know about it?

To head off this threat of a Shi'ite clergy-driven religious movement, the US has, according to Asia Times Online investigations, resolved to arm small militias backed by US troops and entrenched in the population to "nip the evil in the bud".

Asia Times Online has learned that in a highly clandestine operation, the US has procured Pakistan-manufactured weapons, including rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition, rockets and other light weaponry. Consignments have been loaded in bulk onto US military cargo aircraft at Chaklala airbase in the past few weeks. The aircraft arrived from and departed for Iraq.

The US-armed and supported militias in the south will comprise former members of the Ba'ath Party, which has already split into three factions, only one of which is pro-Saddam Hussein.

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The obvious reason for this tactic [purchasing Pak-made weapons] is to give the impression that the resistance acquired its arms and ammunition from different channels and from different countries - and anywhere other than the United States.
  Asia Times article

Meanwhile, in Iraq...

Armed fighters have kidnapped an official of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party while four Iraqi policemen have been killed in violence north of Baghdad, security sources say.

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Elsewhere, a bomb targeting a police patrol in Samarra killed a police officer and wounded four others on Thursday, a police officer said.

And three police officers and a fighter were killed in an assassination attempt on a police captain late on Wednesday near Samarra.

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Meanwhile, a Turkish national is thought to be among eight people found shot dead north of Baghdad, Iraqi police said on Thursday, adding that all the victims were employed on a US military base.

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Separately, two US soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, the US military said on Thursday.

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Four other US soldiers died in Iraq on Wednesday, including three in non-hostile incidents.
  Aljazeera article

This post is the last of those that I tried to publish yesterday, but got no cooperation from blogger. This morning, I can add some more to it...

Acoording to police 1st Lt Waid Husain, two people were killed and five were injured when a bomber blew himslef near an Ashura procession in the Shia Ash Shula district northwest of the city centre.

Thousands of Shia marched through Baghdad on Friday to mark Ashura, a ceremony commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680CE.

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Separately, two US soldiers were killed in two attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military said.

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At least 36 people have been killed and dozens wounded in twin attacks near Shia mosques in southern and western Baghdad.

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A second blast, apparently caused by a mortar attack, occurred outside the al-Qura mosque in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood of western Baghdad.
  Aljazeera article